Bicycles Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people who build and repair bicycles, people who train cycling, or commute on bicycles. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
When I pedal fairly hard there is a creak coming from the bottom of the bike. I have read several other questions which talk about a similar thing however my situation is slightly different:
The creaking stops when I flip the right hand pedal 180 degrees.
Should I just change the pedals to fix this?
To be clear I believe this is a problem with the pedals.
I could tell you more accurately if I were riding with you and could hear the noise and where it came from. But, I can tell you these things for certain:
Clean and lube your pedal bearings. Do not skimp and just add some oil. Also make sure your pedals and crankarms are tightened to the correct recommended torque.
Do not delay before applying these maintenance measures. I say "do not delay" because the cause could be that the crankarms are not torqued down properly. This is not likely, but it is possible, and if it is the reason? Then you can ruin the crankset within a few miles of riding. That's right - ruin - to the point of a crankarm or the crank spider cracking and eventually breaking. If it cracks you will see it happening - and it won't be sudden - so in that way it is not unsafe, ok? But it will be relatively expensive to fix.
So the first thing you need to do is to make sure the moving parts involved (pedals, crankarms, bottom bracket) have proper maintenance and lubrication. Your problem is likely somewhere in there.
For what was described, I.E the creaking going away when the pedal in question was flipped 180 degrees I think we can assume that it is the pedals which are at fault. When using metal pedals there are often screws attaching the outer rim to the center. These may have become lose and just require tightening with a screwdriver.
